In My Arms
by Monica-Bing
Summary: A continuation of the finale: Chandler and Monica's first night as parents.


In My Arms

"Chandler, look!" Monica exclaimed from the backseat. "Jack is making the cutest little face."  
"Honey, I'm a little busy looking at the **road**," Chandler replied as he concentrated on maneuvering through the traffic on the bridge. He was unable to resist, however, stealing a glance at the backseat in the rearview mirror, smiling at the look of ecstasy on his wife's face as the fussed over their newborn twins, situated in car seats on either side of her. "What's he doing?"

"He had his nose all scrunched up and his little tongue sticking out," Monica told him, illustrating the expression as best she could and making Chandler laugh out loud when he caught a glimpse of her in the mirror. Against his better judgment, he turned his head to look back at them over his shoulder, not even trying to hide the grin that spread across his face when his eyes fell on his son and daughter. His children.

"And Erica's just sleeping away, huh?" Chandler commented as he turned his attention back to the road. "You think she's bored with us already?"

"Nah, she's just had a busy day," Monica answered, her voice sing-songy like she was addressing the twins. "Think about it, Chandler. These kids have been born, met their parents, gone home for the first time, and now moved to a new house all in a matter of hours. Wouldn't you be tired, too?"

"I **am** tired," Chandler replied dryly, shaking his head. "After all, I was sitting there _waiting_ on them to be born, then I got the surprise of two – TWO – new babies, and now, on the way to my new house, I have already been relegated to chauffer by my children, who are less than ten hours old!"

Monica smiled, unable to describe the warmth she felt every time Chandler referred to the babies as his children. She had dreamed of this day, of these feelings, and had started to believe it would never come. And now here she sat with a child on either side, on the way to the house of her dreams that she would share with her family. It was almost too much to grasp.

"It has been a pretty exciting day," she agreed, catching his eye in the rearview mirror. "The best day of my life," she continued more quietly as she looked down at her son and daughter and lovingly adjusted the blankets covering them. Chandler simply nodded his agreement with statement, suddenly unable to speak. They lapsed into silence as both pondered the events of the day, and how different their lives would be from now on. A few minutes later, Chandler cleared his throat as he slowed the car.

"We're home."

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"Look at them," Chandler breathed, gazing first at Jack in his arms, and then at Erica in Monica's. "They're so cute I don't even mind that there's two of them!"

Monica gave him a warning look, then moved closer so she could stroke Jack's cheek with one finger. "And they're so tiny. Can you believe that we're responsible for two people so little?"

"At the risk of sounding repetitive, I reiterate: I can**_not_** believe we're responsible for **two **of them!"

"Don't kid yourself, Chandler. You're absolutely thrilled that we got one of each."

"Yeah, well…" Chandler smiled to himself as Erica grabbed his outstretched finger. "I guess it's hard to resist these little guys."

"You know we have some major shopping to do tomorrow, right? We don't even have separate cribs for them; they'll have to share the bassinet on their first night."

"I don't think they'll mind. They've been sharing pretty close quarters for the past nine months."

"And we'll need extra diapers and bottles," Monica continued without acknowledging his comment. "And more blankets and an extra mobile, and we should probably buy another digital camera, 'cause they might both be doing cute things at the same time, and – " She paused, looking up at Chandler with panic in her eyes. "_Why wasn't I more prepared for this?!?!"_

"Because we were only expecting one?" Chandler provided, eliciting a glare from Monica. "We'll go shopping tomorrow, babe. But everything is already closed now anyway, so you might as well just forget about all the things we still need and just enjoy the babies."

Monica tilted her head to one side, smiling as she studied him. He was looking down at his son with a satisfied smile on his face, gently rocking him from side to side. When Jack waved a tiny fist in the air, Chandler chuckled as he caught it and lifted it to his lips. _He was a natural_, Monica thought to herself, just as she always knew he would be. It made her heart pound with happiness to see him slip into his new role so easily, with no reservations.

"You're going to be a great daddy," she whispered to him as she leaned up to kiss his cheek. "I'm so glad I'm the one that gets to share this with you."

Chandler looked at her, his blue eyes shining from the compliment she had just given him. "Ditto," he whispered back, kissing her gently on the lips. "Are ya happy?" he asked her softly, already knowing the answer but wanting to hear it from her lips.

"I'm happy," Monica assured him, blinking away tears as her eyes strayed to each of the twins and then back to her husband. "So happy."

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"What's wrong with them?" Monica asked anxiously as she gently bounced her screaming son in her arms, trying to comfort him. "Why won't they stop crying?"  
"I don't know!" Chandler replied as he paced the room with Erica, staring down at his red-faced daughter with a mixture of exhaustion and fear. "It's like the clock struck midnight and they turned into little demons! They must be the spawn of that father-killing psycho after all."

"Chandler!" Monica admonished him, staring at him in disbelief. "If you ever say something like that in front of my children again, I'll divorce you!"

"Sorry," Chandler muttered, letting his eyes fall back to the baby in his arms. "But I still think we should get DNA tests," he continued under his breath.

"What else do we do? We've fed them and changed them and rocked them and sung to them…what are we doing wrong?"

"You're asking **me**?" Chandler responded incredulously, pausing in his pacing to look at her. "You're the one that knows all about babies!"

"Apparently I don't know about **_these_** babies!" Monica wailed, lifting Jack to her shoulder and holding him close. "And I'm their mother! I'm supposed to know."

"C'mon, Mon, all babies cry. Don't you remember Emma's first day home?"

"Yes, and I'm the one that made her STOP CRYING! So why can't I do it with Jack and Erica?"

"Maybe they don't like the house," Chandler suggested, following Monica's lead and lifting Erica to his shoulder. "Maybe they're scared."

"Or maybe they want their mother," Monica said quietly, voicing the thought that had been haunting her while the twins screamed for the past hour and a half.

Chandler looked at her sharply, taking in the disheartened slump of her shoulders and her downcast eyes. Without a word, he shifted Erica's weight to one arm and crossed the room to put an arm around Monica's shoulders.

"Their mommy's right here, baby," he whispered to her quietly, praying that the babies would stop crying soon and dispel the doubts Monica was having. "They're just being babies. You know that as well as I do."

Monica sighed and forced a tight smile. "I know. I just hate seeing them so miserable. It's breaking my heart, Chandler."

"I know, honey, but you better get used to it. We're in for a lot of this over the next couple of years." He paused, hit with sudden inspiration. "Why don't you sing them a lullaby?"

Monica considered that for a moment before turning the suggestion back on him. "Why don't you? You have a nicer voice."

"Nah," Chandler replied. "You have a beautiful voice. It just might do the trick. Why don't you sit down with them in the rocking chair, and I'll go get them another bottle."

"Okay," Monica finally agreed, her uncertainty evident in her voice. She shifted Erica so that she could take Jack from Chandler, and then sat down with both of them in the rocking chair. "Wait!" she called out just as Chandler was heading for the door. "What should I sing?"

"Whatever you want," Chandler replied as he walked out into the hallway. Pausing outside the door, he waited until he heard her hesitant voice begin sounding out the first few notes of "Daydream Believer". He smiled, knowing that her father had once sung the same song to her as a lullaby; Monica had loved the song all her life as a result.

He hurried to the kitchen and warmed up two bottles, mentally adding "an extra bottle warmer" to the list Monica had started during her rambling earlier in the evening. On his way back up to the nursery, he detoured through the living room to pick up the camera (they had already filled up four memory cards, of course), knowing that he would be unable to resist snapping a shot of his wife singing to the twins.

The crying had quieted while he was in the kitchen and by the time he reached the nursery, it was silent. Monica looked up at him as he crept into the room, a relieved smile on her face.

"It worked. They're sleeping."

Chandler nodded, resisting the urge to move closer until he had caught the image of Monica holding their sleeping children in her arms, looking down at them tenderly. The flash of the bulb caught her off-guard and she glanced up, surprised, as Chandler sheepishly lowered the camera.

"Couldn't help it," he defended himself. "The three of you looked too beautiful." Leaving the bottles sitting on the dresser by the door – the nursery was the only room where the furniture was actually set up, since they had only officially 'moved in' that afternoon - he crossed the room and knelt down beside the chair, reaching out to rub Erica's pajamaed arm with one finger.

"There are my angels again. You just wanted your mommy to sing to you, didn't you?" he cooed to the babies, before standing up and kissing Monica on the forehead. "You want me to put them in the bassinet so we can go to bed?"

Monica hesitated, then shrugged slightly. "Well, actually…"

"Monica," Chandler interrupted her. "We're not going to stay in here with them all night. We need our rest, too."

"That's not what I was going to say!" Monica stated defensively. "I was gonna…say maybe they could sleep in our bed with us?"

Chandler raised one eyebrow, though he wasn't actually surprised by the request. "Aren't you afraid we'll roll over on them?"  
"**_I_** won't. And besides, you don't move at all when you're sleeping. I just thought the four of us should be all together tonight. It's our first night as a family, the first night in a new house…"

"Okay," Chandler agreed, hoping he hadn't given in too easily. The truth was, he didn't want to be away from them any more than she did. He leaned over to pick up Jack, then held out his free hand to help Monica to her feet. Once on her feet, she entwined her fingers securely with his, and they walked hand-in-hand to their new bedroom.

Once they were settled with the babies between them, Chandler reached over to take Monica's hand.

"It's a weird feeling, isn't it, laying here all together like this? It's like every dream we ever had is right here, come true; like they're all tangible."

"And I owe it all to you."

"That's mutual, sweetheart. I love you so much, Mon." In the darkness, Monica smiled, thinking once again how much the nickname sounded like "Mom", a title she could now boast. Somehow, she knew Chandler was pondering the same thing.

"I love you too, Chandler. And I love you," she continued, kissing Jack's head and then Erica's.

"Let's get some sleep," Chandler whispered. "We're going to need our energy now that we're parents."

Monica nodded in agreement, but didn't tell him what she was thinking: She didn't think she'd be able to sleep. Not tonight.

Across the bed, Chandler was watching two tiny chests rising and falling in rhythm with their breaths in awe, thinking the exact same thing.

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Five hours and three diaper changes later, Monica rubbed bleary eyes and pulled herself out of the bed. She was determined to get the twins on a schedule immediately (of course), and the beeping travel alarm resting beside her head told her it was time for their first bottles of the morning. She glanced over at Chandler, who appeared to be sleeping now though she knew he hadn't slept anymore than she had during the night. Each time one of the twins whimpered, they both jumped to attention, ready to tend to their every whim.

"Honey," she whispered, hating to wake him but needing him to know she was leaving the room. "Babe, I'm going downstairs to fix their bottles. Will you watch them and make sure they don't fall off the bed?"

"Newborns don't roll," Chandler mumbled drowsily, opening one eyes to look up at her. "But I'll watch them."

"How do you know that?" Monica asked, surprised by his knowledge of newborns.

"The book," Chandler replied, appearing to force himself awake. "The one you were reading – "What To Expect When You're Expecting". I read it, too."

"You did?"

"Mmm hmm." Chandler sat up a little bit and turned onto his side, smiling immediately at the sight of Erica and Jack sleeping beside him. "I've got them, Mon. Go ahead."

Monica crawled back onto the bed to kiss each of the babies, then dropped a kiss on Chandler's nose. "Thanks, sweetie. I'll be right back."

"We'll be here," Chandler assured her as she left the room, checking her watch as she went. In the kitchen, she made the same mental note Chandler had the night before about an extra bottle warmer, then grabbed a Yahoo out of the fridge for Chandler before dashing back up the stairs.

"Honey, I brought you – "

Her voice trailed off as she stepped through the doorway and she stopped in her tracks, knowing that the image in front of her would be burned into her memory for the rest of her days.

Chandler had both of the twins on his chest, an arm wrapped protectively around each of them, his eyes closed. A wave of love for him swept over her, and she had to blink back tears of joy as she slowly crossed the room to join them on the bed. Schedules could wait, she decided, as she deposited the bottles on the floor next to their bed.

Chandler stirred slightly as her weight shifted the bed, a smile flitting across his face in his sleep. She smiled with him, reaching over to run her hand through his hair. "You were made for this," she whispered to him. "You were meant to be their daddy."

There would be more – many more – sleepless nights, and there would be sickness and toddler terrors and unanswerable questions and never enough time in the day. Times two. But Monica knew that she wouldn't trade a second of any of it.

And besides, moments like this - when she thought her heart would burst with love for the two tiny people beside her and the man holding them – were what she had been waiting for all her life.

A family. Her family.

Careful not to wake them, Monica stretched out beside Chandler and stretched her arm across all three of them as she closed her eyes.

Chandler was right. In that moment, it seemed that all of her dreams had already come true. She was holding them all in her arms.

**AN: So in case you couldn't tell (between "I Just Close My Eyes" and this one), I've been in a sappy C&M mood lately – and apparently a "writing" mood for the first time in a while. =) I hope you can forgive the corniness of this one, but I just HAD to write a baby story since so much was missing from the finale! Thanks for reading…**


End file.
